There are certain things which make Anza-Borrego a favorite place for us to visit.   One is the weird dichotomy of civilized town and wild desert.   In one there is knowledge and service, and in the other is the place where those things are needed if you are to understand what you are seeing and how to survive it.

Emma started off the day with a special ranger program for kids only (no parents allowed), where she learned about tarantulas.   Led by the ranger, she went looking for some but unfortunately there weren’t any to be found.   Oddly enough, Emma is scared of little spiders but not of tarantulas.   It has been repeatedly proposed that we keep one as a pet in the trailer, but I have vetoed this idea.   I can imagine the day we pull in after towing, only to find a broken glass aquarium and no pet inside.   It would be a long sleepless night waiting for the furry legs to show up in bed.

When Emma returned from her talk/walk, she was sporting a new Junior Ranger badge that looks like a six-pointed sheriff’s star, for having completed the state park workbook.   I’ve lost count of how many she has earned.   When we get to our new home base, Eleanor plans to mount them on a giant board of some type.

Seeing Anza-Borrego really requires four-wheel drive.   The drive to Font’s Point, for example, involves deep sand and ruts, but it gives you a terrific perspective on the badlands section of the park, which otherwise you’ll never see.   You can see some of the badlands in the background of the picture above.

After Font’s Point we decided to do a little more exploring.   The Nissan is pretty nimble on these roads, for its size.   The roads run from mild and passable by a car, to unbelievably difficult even for dune buggies and jeeps. We stuck to the moderate roads.   The little descent above was probably the toughest thing we encountered and it wasn’t really hard at all.

Tommy and Kathy are leaving tomorrow so we passed on further exploration, to get back to camp before sunset for some more jamming.   This time we begged Eleanor to join us as vocal accompaniment.   She’s pretty good at the Hawaiian tunes and it helped a lot, so I’m hoping she’ll stay involved as I practice.

To cap off the session, Tommy had Eleanor and I perform a song without his help (“White Sandy Beach” by Willie Dan) and it actually went pretty well.   At the end he gave us both big hugs and raved about how far my playing has progressed in two weeks.   Tommy’s a good teacher and he knows how to encourage people.   We’re still not ready for prime time, but maybe with some practice we’ll be ready for a private showing by summertime.